A Killing Joke
by SorrowfulReincarnation
Summary: After another bombing that seems like Jinx's work, Piltover's finest returns frustrated to their office to take care of the reports, however, something is definitely off there. A madwoman wants to play a game, knowing it will be a blast, but how will it affect relationships when truths are revealed that should've not come out like that? All it takes to change... is one bad day...


_DISCLAIMER: I do not own League of Legends or it's characters._

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_**A Killing Joke**_

With a loud groan, nearly ripping out of it's hinges, the door to the office shared by the sheriff of Piltover and the Piltover Enforcer, the duo commonly referred to as 'Piltover's finest', smashed open. It slammed into the wall with enough force to leave a few cracks in it, though the door itself didn't remain unharmed either, the small window in it cracked ever so slightly, and the wood bent – though not by the impact with the wall, but rather under the force of the punch it had just received.

The culprit behind this, though, was no one else but Piltover's enforcer herself, Vi. And one angry Vi it was.

After standing in the door for a second, trying to contain her anger as she balled her own fists inside her huge hextech gauntlets, she stomped into the room and threw her hands up into the air.

"The nerve of that scrawny, lying, destructive little...!" she roared, though any more name-calling was omitted in favor of a frustrated cry to the heavens, seconds before the pink-haired woman flopped down into a chair in front of her partner's desk.

"I'm angry as well, Vi. But that still isn't a reason to let your anger out on our door." spoke said partner as a voice of reason once she stepped into the room as well, though in a lot calmer manner, stopping only to examine the damage caused to door and wall, "Or our office, for that matter."

Vi glared over to the sheriff of Piltover that she was partnered with, her anger still unrestricted as her gaze met that of Caitlyn.

"Are you kidding me? How can you remain so calm, Cait? Weren't you with me at the crime scene? Hello, a factory has been bombed to pieces, and we've just been fooled another time by that maniac! She wasn't there when we showed up, though she always sticks around after a bombing to mock us! Heck, the evidence said clearly that she wasn't even there to begin with during the entire thing!" roared the enforcer with the huge hextech gauntlets, hammering one down on the ground next to her chair, causing even more damage to the office as the tiles cracked under the force.

Caitlyn let out a soft sigh, both in frustration at the crime they were investigating, as well as at her partner's behavior. Having placed her rifle against the wall next to the door, she strode through the room and turned her chair on the other side of the desk a little, then slipped into it.

"I know how you feel, Vi. If it weren't for Jinx's tag on the only unscathed wall of the factory, I wouldn't even suspect it was her." huffed the sheriff as she leaned back in her chair and put her feet onto her desk, "Unflashy, a row of bombs to level the building, no excessive amounts of jokes or tags or anything to mock us. And then, she wasn't even there to 'welcome' us – No, this is not how Jinx usually acts."

"Pah! We both know that the brat has no real pattern, cupcake. She's impulsive, spontaneous and pretty unpredictable due to her madness. The only real 'pattern' she ever had was that her bombings were flashy and big, not two of them ever really alike though, and that she leaves back as many graffiti as she can and is there to 'welcome' us, only to then escape. None of that this time." grumbled Vi in return, her gaze still hard, though focused on the desk of her partner rather than on her partner.

"Don't forget the bomb." added the sheriff, to which Vi rose an eyebrow. At the same time, she disengaged her gauntlets, letting them drop onto the ground unceremoniously with loud thuds, knowing that it would take much more to damage them – though much to the chagrin of Caitlyn, who didn't like the additional damage the floor received by this action. Vi could be pretty unreasonable when she was angry, Caitlyn knew that, but tonight had to be the worst mood she had experienced the enforcer in.

"The bomb?" repeated Vi, not quite understanding what her partner was referring to. Then again, Vi had never cared for the small details, and had been in charge of clearing most of the rubble with her hextech gauntlets tonight, while Caitlyn had investigated more than she had.

"Yeah. It was a time bomb, Vi, set to explode at exactly 11PM, from what I could gather. I found a few pieces in the rubble that looked like they could belong to a timer." sighed the sheriff, now leaning completely back in her chair, letting the spring squeak, though her hard and serious gaze remained on Vi, "It would be the first time that I see Jinx using a time bomb."

Vi didn't disagree. She couldn't. Jinx had never used a time bomb before, not in any case ever documented. Even more so, Vi had heard the loose cannon herself claim that time bombs got to be the worst kind of bomb.

"Yeah, that doesn't really sound like Jinx at all, now that you mention it. She's against time bombs, since a time bomb is most often used to blow something up while being somewhere completely else. And we both know that Jinx just loves to see things blow up, the closer she is to it when she hits the switch, the more does her deranged mind experience glee. No, a time bomb is against all she stands for. She wants to be close, she wants to see it, to experience it." mused Vi, the logical approach to this calming her down, though she found herself disgusted by the thought of the maniac's sadistic and utterly deranged smile, illuminated by the explosions she loved so much.

"Exactly my thoughts. Jinx would not use a time bomb. Not unless she has no other choice." agreed Caitlyn, closing her eyes, "So is it a copycat? Someone aiming to copy Jinx, or who wants us to believe it's her?".

"Either that, or Jinx herself is trying to fool us. I know this may sound weird, Cait, as it means that I give her some credit, but Jinx is anything but dumb. I hate to admit it, but just because she is deranged, nuts and unpredictable doesn't mean that she's an idiot. She could want us to believe it's a copycat, or that someone wants to make us believe she is responsible... Damn it, Cait, Jinx may be a lunatic, but she's also a damn genius. A deranged genius."

The enforcer growled as she voiced her thoughts, new anger welling up inside her, so she balled her fists around the armrests of the chair she sat in.

"Or even worse, and she is plotting something, and it involved distracting us with a time bomb. That would be the only situation I'd see her willingly use a time bomb in. If it's to mock us, she'd go to incredible lengths. The more embarrassed and mocked we'll feel by it, the greater is the length she'd be willing to go." hissed Vi, narrowing her eyes.

"You mean she used a time bomb exactly because she knew we'd be investigating the scene? To lure us there so she could be somewhere else, to set something even bigger up?" inquired Caitlyn, the idea not exactly pleasing her, but she couldn't deny the possibility behind it, either.

In response, Vi suddenly picked up one of her gloves and, without even standing up, threw it across the room at the far wall of it. The sheriff, though shuddering at the new damage her partner had just caused, knocking a picture off the wall and leaving a large dent in it instead, did not say anything this time.

For the rest of the night, she'd let Vi rage. She too, felt like raging at this new discovery. And she could always have the enforcer fix whatever she'd break in her rage later on.

"Goddamn scrawny little piece of shit that she is! If I get my hands on her, I'll smack that grin off her face before I throw her into the best guarded cell in all Piltover! Oh, what I'd give to know where she is now...!" Vi picked up the other glove and threw it as well as she raged, this time hitting the cupboard on the far side of the room – and for a short moment, swore she had heard a suppressed gasp from that side of the room.

Caitlyn observed this in silence, kind of lost in thought herself. For Jinx to behave out of the ordinary had it's impact on both of them, serving to annoy Vi and for Caitlyn to ponder, the reason for both reactions being that they feared whatever Jinx had in store for them now.

Cause that was the only thing this change in Jinx behavior could mean: A new rule had been added to the game that Jinx was playing. For Jinx, bombing the city obviously was nothing but a game, her game, a game with rules she could bend to her will. A game against the police, against the sheriff and the enforcer.

A game that wouldn't end until she was caught by the two, or, in the worst case, would grow bored of the game and would get rid of the other players to move on to a new game. And that was the beginning of many questions, questions that lingered in both the sheriffs and the enforcer's minds whenever the lunatic had committed another crime.

Would Jinx eventually grow bored of them and really try to kill them? Would Jinx go that far after having never actively tried to kill them? And if so, how many crimes until the apparently inevitable would happen?

For Vi, chasing Jinx had never included the idea that she might die because the criminal would come after her. If anything, Jinx had always lured them somewhere with a bomb or some other kind of crime, only to allow them to chase her through the entirety of Piltover, and at one point, once she'd got tired of the chase, had left them behind and vanished from sight.

They had to give her that – Jinx had gotten to know the city of progress incredibly well in only a short time after her arrival.

But no, Vi had always imagined that, if she'd truly die during a chase, it would not have been because Jinx wanted her dead, since Jinx had too much fun messing with her. Of course, the enforcer knew what she was risking, that her life was at stake each and every day, but she had always truly imagined that, if she'd die during a chase, it would happen in an accident, like that she'd slip while they'd be chasing Jinx through another abandoned and nearly completely destroyed building, falling through a hole in the ground to her death.

Maybe that would make the lunatic realize what she was doing, her favorite plaything, the enforcer, breaking in a way that could not be repaired.

But now, the tides had turned. Jinx had changed a rule in her game, and it may as well be to actively plan their death, meaning to break them beyond repair.

Both Caitlyn and Vi had always known that Jinx would be the death of them one day, that was out of question. And now, it might as well be literal.

"Hey, Vi..." Caitlyn's voice scared the enforcer out of her raging thoughts, made her snap her head up.

"Yeah? Sorry, was kinda lost in thought. The maniac knows how to get under my skin, that's for sure." huffed the pinkette, finally relaxing into her chair, though the irritation was still there as she crossed her arms and rested her right leg across the left, "Tonight more so than usual."

Caitlyn's gaze was hard, making even Vi, who had worked with her for so long now, unable to read exactly what Caitlyn was feeling or thinking.

"This isn't just about Jinx, is it? I know how irritating she can be, but you're usually able to swallow at least some of your anger. Tonight, you're not even trying to." reasoned the sheriff – and knew she had hit the nail on the head when Vi stared at her without any emotion for a few seconds, only to eventually sigh and lower her head in defeat.

"Yeah. Should've known you'd figure it out." chuckled the enforcer, raising her gaze again, a loop-sided smile on her lips, "You know me too well by now, Cait."

The sheriff merely nodded, but remained silent otherwise, waiting for her partner to reveal what was on her mind. Vi hesitated for a moment, apparently pondering whether or not she should tell her partner. The decision she made eventually, though, sent her into a short series of nearly hysterical giggling.

"Look, cupcake, it's actually pretty stupid." began Vi, relaxing into her chair, something that made Caitlyn relax and smile as well, "I've been getting calls lately."

Caitlyn's smile fell immediately, worry replacing it. Vi spotted that, though, and quickly rose her hands in defense, hoping to stop Caitlyn from making false assumptions.

"Woah, cupcake, hold it! Not the kind of calls you think!" chuckled the enforcer, "Calls from a video rental store."

While this served to calm Caitlyn down, it also served to confuse her even more. Of all the things she had expected, it wasn't a video rental store.

"A video rental store?" repeated Caitlyn, the confusion obvious in her voice. Vi couldn't help but smile at her partner's confusion, especially due to the accent of her partner. She knew that Caitlyn didn't like it when someone talked about her accent, but to Vi, it was amusing and cute at the same time to hear her partner talk.

"A video rental store." confirmed the enforcer, smiling at her partner, almost wishing Caitlyn would repeat it again, "Apparently, I'm supposed to have rented a complete season of some superhero cartoon, which apparently has something to do with a bat or something. They're calling at least twice a night now to inform me that I should finally return it and pay, since that is apparently overdue since about one and a half week now."

Vi leaned back in her chair, one leg still across the other one, but crossed her arms behind her head now.

"I'm supposed to have rented it two weeks ago for three days. The clerk said I came in at night, went straight for the cartoon section and then slammed that cartoon down on the counter along with my ID. And this is where it gets interesting." Vi narrowed her eyes as she spoke, and knew she had Caitlyn's full attention when she saw the questioning raise of an eyebrow on her partner's face.

"Apparently, I've been wearing quite a lot for a warm summer night, covering most of my body, save for my head. That wasn't the only thing the clerk was confused about, though." Vi stopped, more for a dramatic effect than anything else, "When I asked him over the phone, he said that my hair color did not match the one on my ID that night. He can't remember which color it exactly was, but when he supposedly asked me back then in the night 'I' rented it, I'm supposed to have replied that I dyed my hair. He bought it, since the hairstyle was matching with the one on the ID, and nothing else seemed to imply that the person renting the cartoon wasn't me. That person even had the same tattoos as me on it's face, though, in retrospect, he is sure they looked a little scribbly that night."

"Someone was impersonating you." concluded Caitlyn, and Vi nodded in agreement.

"Either that, or I'm sleepwalking while on the job, since that was where I should have been at the time that I'm supposed to have been at the video rental store. You remember it? It was the night when we had to stay here at the station to fill in all those reports about Jinx's latest bombing and vandalism spree all throughout Piltover."

Caitlyn nodded, remembering the night only too well. The report about the primate that Jinx had freed from a nearby zoo and had vandalized to resemble something that looked awfully lot like a clown alone had taken Caitlyn hours to fill in.

"And that's not all. Apparently, and that's why they're calling me at night, I've told the clerk when my shift starts and ends, so that they wouldn't miss me in case they had to call me." added the enforcer, "Kind of sounds like the one who rented that in my name wanted me to be called eventually and had meant for me to learn about this."

"You know, Vi... That's kind of interesting." mused Caitlyn eventually, sinking deeper into her chair as well and closing her eyes, "I've had an experience similar to that just last night."

The sheriff opened her eyes again to look at her partner, who was now the one with the questioning frown.

"A woman called me last night, to remind me to pay the rent for some apartment I've apparently rented for me and my 'lover'. If what she said is right, I've rented the apartment one and a half months ago, but didn't pay the rent at the end of the first month." revealed the sheriff of Piltover, before she closed her eyes again.

"What's interesting, though, is the description she gave of the woman who rented the apartment with my ID... Wearing too much for the summer, leaving only her face exposed, not a single strand of hair as it was all hidden in a 'weird hat', wearing aviator sunglasses to hide her eyes." she added.

As she opened her eyes, she expected Vi to stare at her with anger or at least seriousness, having concluded the same thing she just had, but instead, the enforcer was staring at her with wide eyes, her skin pale.

It almost looked like Vi had been startled to death, shocked by something that Caitlyn had just said, though the sheriff couldn't figure out why.

Until Vi spoke.

"Woah, really Cait? You didn't even tell me you had someone you liked... ya know, 'that way'. Who is it? That idiot Jayce?" asked Vi – leaving Caitlyn to sigh, roll her eyes and growl.

"No one. Look, first off, I would've told you if I was in any kind of relationship with someone. Second, my job doesn't exactly allow me to pursue such a relationship." began the sheriff, stopping only to take a breath, which Vi used to make a comment.

"So it's true what Jinx said, you are pretty much married to your job!" snorted Vi in amusement, holding back her laughter. As much as she didn't like criminal, Jinx wasn't always only a source of frustration. Sometimes, Jinx was pretty funny.

Only when her humor wasn't directed at her, though, which sadly was most of the time.

Caitlyn regarded this comment with a frustrated growl, but didn't say anything else about it. Not like she could, as even she knew that Jinx's comment wasn't too far fetched.

"Anyways!" growled the sheriff, letting Vi know that she didn't like the reminder of Jinx's kind of humor, before she finished her earlier sentence, "I didn't rent the apartment! Vi, didn't you just listen to what I said? The description that the woman gave me of the one who rented the apartment with my ID sounded a lot like the one who rented that cartoon with your ID!"

"So you're saying it's connected somehow? Wait, you had your ID stolen, too?!"

Caitlyn rolled her eyes at Vi's reaction. That was so like Vi.

"Yeah. I only noticed last night, though. After I got the call, I checked my wallet for my ID, and though I found it, it turned out to be a fake one. A pretty good fake." sighed Caitlyn, pulling her head a little lower, "So whoever took my ID did so without me noticing, and replaced it with a pretty good fake at the same time."

"Yeah, and that means something. I mean, I'm not the most attentive person, so I can see how someone managed to snatch mine and could replace it without me noticing, but for the same person to do that to you is really impressive. And that person has to be crazy, I mean, stealing the IDs of two cops and using them to rent something? Batshit insane." huffed the enforcer.

"The question is, though, who'd do something like that, and for what reason." agreed Caitlyn.

"And whoever that mysterious lover is you're supposed to have!"

Caitlyn found herself rolling her eyes again. Vi wasn't really taking this as serious as she was, as it seemed. But could she blame her? This was just a small mystery and crime compared to what Jinx was up to, working on a bigger scale.

"Stop taking it so easy, Vi! This is no laughing matter! It's a crime, and this time, we're the victims. If anything, this should only encourage us to find out the truth!" growled the sheriff.

"Ha! Funny, that's exactly what I want, to find out some truth!"

Both Vi and Caitlyn cringed madly at the third voice in the room, though neither of them was prepared for what followed next, as the cupboard, the same Vi had thrown one of her gauntlets at before, burst open, someone tumbling out of it that was awfully familiar to both of them.

"Jinx!" roared the enforcer as she recognized their insane nemesis with the electric-blue hair. Though immediately realizing she did not have her hextech gauntlets on, Vi reacted to the sudden appearance of the maniac and placed her hands on the armrests of the chair she sat in, ready to push herself out of it, knowing she wouldn't even need her gauntlets.

Jinx saw this, her insane eyes, already filled with excitement, growing wide. Getting excited, Jinx suddenly pushed herself off the floor and crossed the distance between her and the enforcer in a mere second, long before Vi would have been able to get up and out of that chair.

Vi was to the criminal's mercy, she knew that much as she spotted the glowing eyes of Jinx above her.

And the next thing she saw, and felt, was how the barrel of Jinx's mini-gun, Pow-Pow, slammed right into her face.

Vi sunk back into her chair, her world spinning furiously, the pain in her skull barely able to bear for the enforcer. She heard Caitlyn gasp just a second after a sharp metallic click, enough for her to know that Jinx had just repositioned Pow-Pow to point right at her face, even though Vi herself couldn't see anything but a blurry, spinning world.

"Oh, if I were you, I'd stay seated, fat hands... The show's just about to start, and we don't want the firework going off early, do we?" A hint of insanity, even more so than usual, lay in Jinx's voice as she spoke into the enforcer's right ear, loud enough for the sheriff to hear as well, as she had intended.

"What's that supposed to mean?" demanded Caitlyn to know, though she began to feel uncomfortable. She had a slight idea of what Jinx was playing at, but hoped that her assumption was wrong. Because, if it was true, the loose cannon had really decided that their game had to end.

"What that is supposed to mean, you ask, hat lady? Well, glad you asked, let me tell ya!" the mad giggle of Jinx would haunt her for the rest of her life, Caitlyn knew that much even before Jinx lazily leaned onto her desk and finished her sentence, "Did you, by any chance, hear a slight metallic noise when you sat down? Let's say, like the hammer of a pistol being pulled back... or a switch?"

"You're insane!" roared the sheriff, panic getting the better of her. Now that she thought about it, she did indeed feel something uncomfortable pressing into her butt through the seat cushion, and she had an idea of what it was.

And didn't like it one bit.

"Ha! You only realized now?" roared Jinx in laughter, jumping out of the sheriff's reach as Caitlyn suddenly lashed out, though the sheriff was making sure not to get up a single inch from the chair she sat in.

Caitlyn, with Vi still out of the picture, was forced to watch as Jinx lazily strolled back to the cupboard she had emerged from, a certain skip to her steps, almost as if she was in glee, and opened the piece of furniture she had been hiding in.

This allowed the sheriff to get a look at the inside of the cupboard, revealing that Jinx had emptied it of it's former contents, which had consisted mostly of files and a set of spare uniforms for her and her partner. But now, it was truly empty.

Safe for a single thing that Jinx had just picked up.

She presented the disc-like object, completely made of metal, to the sheriff, her smirk growing into a deranged grin, especially as she saw how Caitlyn paled. She had realized that she was sitting on one of the same things that Jinx was just presenting to her.

The thing in question was a button-shaped and disc-like object with a dark silver and apparently smooth surface, a little bigger than Jinx's hand in size. At the top of it, a disc-shaped area of it protruded a bit from it, allowing a bright blue light to escape it, testament of the powerful energy stored inside.

"This is my kind of whoopee cushion, hats. It works a little different from the regular ones, I guess, but the fart is ginormous! It's blowing you away, so to speak! It will blow all of your barriers to pieces, all the laughter you held inside will be released in one blow! Oh, and it will blow all of your limbs off, too."

Jinx mad giggle sent a cold shiver down her spine. Of course this wasn't a whoopee cushion she was sitting on, like Jinx said – It was a contact mine, and both she and Vi had each sat down on the trigger of one. Once pressure was applied to the protruding area, it would be pushed into the mine itself – And once this pressure was removed... Boom!

"So, you best stay seated and enjoy the ride. Make sure to fasten your seat belts, cause we're in for one heck of a ride!" guffawed the mad criminal, waving the mine in her hand around, something that caused the sheriff to fear for her dear life more than she already did.

This time, they were in a situation they wouldn't escape from. Without them knowing, Jinx had all along been the cat in their game of cat and mouse, had become the hunter, and they the prey.

"You sick, twisted little...!" growled Vi, the blurriness gone, allowing her to glare directly at the loose cannon. Until now, she had listened quietly, knowing that she couldn't do a thing. But now that she had recovered, she was back in the game, and was desperate to break the new rules that Jinx had introduced.

The question she was faced with, though, was just how to do that.

"Oh, fats, welcome back to the world of the living! You're just in time, I was just about to explain the game I want to play with you two!" giggled the loose cannon in glee, now that her favorite cop was back for more.

"Hats? Fats?" muttered the enforcer in an aggressive, but more calm manner, raising an eyebrow at the criminal. Jinx frowned at her, but then shrugged and giggled.

"New nicknames. You don't like them? They don't blow your mind? Should I go back to 'hat lady' and 'fat hands', fats?" smirked Jinx, provokingly leaning closer to Vi, but the enforcer knew this was to provoke her, and managed to keep her anger under control, not lashing out at Jinx, and possibly setting off the bomb she was sitting on.

"If you call Cait 'hats' and me 'fats', can I call you 'mads' then? Cause that certainly is what you are!" shot the enforcer back. It was obvious that Jinx didn't like how Vi turned that joke on her, as her smirk was replaced by surprise for her second, and then a scowl.

"Shut up, fat hands." growled the criminal, suddenly back to calling her favorite plaything 'fat hands', narrowing her eyes at Vi, "In case you didn't notice, I'm in charge here. You're merely sitting on one."

"Don't make me stand up and beat the crap out of you, Jinx!" barked the enforcer, hoping to intimidate the criminal. No chance, though, as Jinx merely rose an eyebrow and smirked.

"Absence makes the fart grow fonder, fats. And I mean that as in 'stand up and you blow the three of us to pieces'!" Jinx giggle was barely endurable for both the now quiet and pale Caitlyn, as well as the raging enforcer, who was doing her best to keep her anger under control.

Suddenly, Jinx's face lit up – Which really couldn't mean anything good.

"Oh! Oh!" gasped the loose cannon as she suddenly jumped up and down in excitement, waving her hands furiously as if to get the attention of the two, "Maybe, if you blow the three of us up, our souls end up mingling after death, and then the three of us can be together in all eternity! That sounds awesome! I mean, just think about it, fat hands, we could play our games forever! Doesn't that sound exciting? I know it does! I wouldn't mind spending the rest of all time with the two of you! You're so fun to mess with!"

Now, both of Piltover's finest were staring in a mixture of disgust, confusion and shock at the loose cannon's sick excitement about her even sicker idea.

"I can see how excited you are!" sniggered the mad woman – before her face and tone suddenly went sinister and threatening, "So you better stay in your seats."

For the first time, Vi actually shuddered in fear of the madwoman. This time, Jinx truly was intimidating, and her plan was more than sick or devious. While it seemed that Jinx didn't intend to kill them, at least not right off the bat, she did seem even crazier than usual. Even moodier, actually.

Jinx suddenly backed away, grinning like a maniac – That was, until she suddenly stumbled over her own feet, having backed away too fast.

And from then on, it was like slow-motion for Piltover's finest.

When Jinx stumbled, the contact mine she had still been holding escaped her grip due to it's smooth surface, slipping out of it like a wet bar of soap. The criminal's eyes widened in shock, not in glee – And this alone, the sight of Jinx panicking, sent both Vi and Caitlyn into absolute fear.

Jinx had not planned this.

"You moron!" was the last thing Vi managed to exclaim, before Jinx regained balance and tried to catch the falling contact mine. Tried, but failed. The tips of her fingers sled across the metal as Jinx made a jump for the contact mine, but failed to grab hold of it. She passed the mine without actually getting a hold of it, and hit the ground seconds before the mine did.

The second it did, Vi knew that she'd never be able to pass on into the afterlife, one large regret, a thing she had never voiced to Caitlyn, would hold her back.

With a sharp click, the trigger of the explosive was pushed into it, landing right atop it, only to then bounce high up into the air again, rebounding off the tiles.

The mine detonated with a sharp noise.

And that was it.

Just a sharp noise.

Both Vi and Caitlyn found themselves frozen in their chairs, not a single muscle wanting to move, watching as the mine hit the ground again after the 'detonation', bounced off it once more, only to repeat the process.

After what seemed like an eternity, which in reality was about five seconds, the mine came to a stop on the ground, laying harmlessly there, nothing having changed about the way it looked, the only difference being the sharp noise it had emitted after the first bounce, and that the blue light had grown stronger.

For a few seconds, the explosive just lay there. And then, detonated for real. However, instead of blasting the room and it's occupants to pieces, it exploded into colorful sparkles and a single, although slightly burnt piece of paper, which simply stated 'Boom!'.

And then, there was Jinx's mad cackling again.

"So, I see you're ready to play my game now. I'm glad. I did so want to play this game with the two of you!" Jinx rose from the ground as she spoke, lunacy in her eyes as she turned to Piltover's finest, "Neither of you rose when I dropped the fake bomb, neither of you tried to prevent it, knowing that if she was to stand up, we'd certainly die . Smart. Very smart."

"Y-you're crazy!" gasped Vi, Caitlyn still out of, staring blankly at where the fake bomb had last been. Jinx seemed to enjoy the accusation of the enforcer.

"I know. I admit it! I'm not normal, and I don't pretend so! And if I weren't so crazy, I'd be insane!" Jinx maniacal laugh sent shivers down the spines of Piltover's finest, effectively snapping Caitlyn out of her stupor, seconds before Jinx crossed the room and sat down on the desk in between the two cops, making sure, though, that they'd be still able to look at each other behind her back.

"Anyways!" she called out, stretching her limbs forwards, insane glee on her face, "Let's play the game I came here for, that I arranged all of this for! Let's play a game of truth and dare!"

Jinx's tone was sinister as she turned her head to grin at Vi, not even trying to contain the madness inside, letting it sparkle in her eyes. Both cops knew immediately that it was no normal game of truth and dare that Jinx was after.

"Here's how it goes! I ask you two some things, and you better say the truth..." she trailed off to emphasize her point and what would follow, looking at Caitlyn to her left now, "Or I'll hurt you, might even help you off that chair should I decide that you're getting to uncomfortable in it. Alternatively, I dare you to stand up and blow the three of us up! Ya know, the afterlife's supposed to be a great place around this time of year, especially for three beauties who were just blown to pieces by a 'whoopee cushion'!"

"Don't call it like that!"

Jinx's head snapped around and she stared in anger at the enforcer, who still dared to give her commands, something that Jinx absolutely hated. Getting commanded around and rules, those were the worst kind of things Jinx knew, restricting her in her _fun_.

"What was that, fat hands?"

"I said... Don't call it like that! The hell, Jinx, you made us sit on goddamn contact mines! This ain't no party prank or something, this'll end up killing us!" roared Vi, finally snapping under all she'd been put through by the loose cannon that night.

Jinx, however, merely continued to frown at the enforcer. She remained seated for a moment, but then jumped off the table, and casually, almost too casually, strolled past the enforcer and out of her sight, up to one of the windows.

A sharp noise filled the air as Jinx closed the shutters.

"Don't you get it, fat hands?" sniggered Jinx after she had successfully shut them off from the outside world, the ceiling light still being the only thing to illuminate the room in a gloomy manner, Jinx's action doing little to change the lighting inside, with no light falling into the room to begin with due to how dark it was outside, with it being shortly after midnight, "This is it, fat hands. This is the killing joke."

Vi growled, not finding amusement in Jinx's kind of humor. She shared a glance with Caitlyn, who was currently the only one able to see the deranged criminal in the room, and the sheriff for once actually looked scared. Not scared out of her mind, but a certain thing about Jinx that night scared the two of them slightly, putting Caitlyn in a mood that was neither total fear, nor total introversion, and Vi into one that was neither completely fear nor anger.

"You know what, Jinx?" called Vi over her shoulder though she couldn't see the madwoman, direct as she was not even intending to keep what she thought to herself, "You're a sick little bi...!"

She never got further, Jinx suddenly appearing right behind her, one hand curling around the back of Vi's head. Before Vi got the chance to protest, Jinx suddenly put all of her strength in pushing Vi's head forward. With a loud noise, the enforcer's head slammed into the desk and bounced off it, the enforcer crying out in pain.

"I know, I know, rule number one, you never start with the head, cause the victim gets all fuzzy." chuckled Jinx darkly as she hopped back onto the desk, smirking madly at the now again dizzy enforcer, "But for you, my dear fat hands, I'd always make an exception. Feeling better now?"

Vi felt like she was going to puke, and not only because of the dizziness or the hits to the head, no, just because of Jinx's sadistic tone alone. Hearing the criminal all amused in her sadistic way was one of the worst things she knew. It never meant anything good.

"So!" called the insane criminal out, stretching her legs, grinning wildly, "Who's up for my game?! I know I am! It'll be lots of fun! Come on, hat lady, you know you want to chuckle at least once in a while, you're always too serious! And fat hands, I know you know how to have a good time! If this evening goes as I have planned, we'll have a _blast_!"

Vi, her gaze not blurry this time, though the impact with the table had not helped her headache, met the gaze of Caitlyn. And even though no word was spoken, they exchanged one single sentence with their eyes alone.

'We don't have a choice, unless we want to be blown apart.'

"Oh, did I mention? If I think that one of you lies, I'll be disappointed. I'll be disappointed, but I can't say what Pow-Pow will do. He hates liars." intervened Jinx – causing Vi to groan out and throw her head back.

"Ugh, great, now she's talking with her weapons again!" groaned the enforcer – and quickly got a slap into the face by Jinx, who faked being hurt in her feelings.

"How can you be so cruel, fat hands? They have feelings, too! Pow-Pow might be hurt if you call him imaginary! Fishbones will probably say something weird and agree with you, but he's just the dumbest weapon ever... Oh, and Zap will be shocked to know what you think of him!"

Vi groaned out again rolled her eyes, the pun being the final straw. Jinx had officially lost it completely, she was sure of that now even more so than ever before.

And she found herself confirmed as Jinx suddenly laid down on the desk in between them, allowing the two cops to glance at each other across the crazy woman's flat body, with the only thing that obstructed their view of one another being the two white cards that Jinx presented them, holding the two flat objects between her index and middle finger of her left hand.

She dropped them onto her stomach unceremoniously, but in contrast to it sensually slid a finger up her own body, almost as if to seduce the two cops – who had none of it, but it didn't bother the criminal in any way.

One of the cards was, as if to mock them, nothing but a regular Joker playing card, though the 'J' on the cards were scribbled over with a pink permanent marker, and spelled her name now instead. The other card, though, which lay so that Vi could easily read it, was different.

It was Caitlyn, though, who first had read through it, even though the card was upside-down for her.

"Wait..." she began, frowning at the cop on the other side of the criminal, almost as if to look for confirmation in her partner's eyes that she had just read right, "What? Dr. Jay Inks, psychologist and relationship expert?"

"You got it wrong, Cait, it's supposed to have major 'psycho' in 'psychologist'." snorted Vi, amused at what the card read, glancing over to their nemesis face, "What is this, Jinx, a bad joke? There's no way that you have a doctor's degree."

The criminal took insult at that, huffed and scowled, but did not rise from her position. Instead, she pulled her legs in and crossed her arms across her flat chest, pouting at the enforcer.

"How is that unlikely? It takes a psycho to know one! Psychologists all have a screw loose themselves!" she declared with a pout, trying to defend the title she apparently had. That illusion was quickly destroyed as well, though, when Vi, now amused more than scared, reached for the card and picked it up to examine it further.

She didn't have to been an expert to see that it was a faked card. A good faked one, though.

"Dr. Jinx, huh? Nice try, but this one's fake, you drew this yourself. And I seriously doubt that your name is 'Jay Inks', though it's a nice play on your name, I have to give you that." snorted Vi. Why again had she been scared? This was Jinx, their old nemesis, the same one that blew up buildings, yet never was serious about anything.

Which included killing them. And yes, she remembered the bomb she sat on.

Now that she thought about it, Jinx had probably installed some way to defuse the contact mines after the cops had amused her, if they weren't fake ones that was.

This was just another one of Jinx's games, her idea of 'a fun time'.

With that out of the way, she relaxed a bit. If Jinx was behaving as she usually did, this night might as well turn out at least a little bit amusing. They only had to humor Jinx, give her whatever she wanted and play this game she wanted to play, and they might live to see the next day, and chase her anew, like they used to before that night.

Still, the reason for this change in Jinx behavior, coming after them rather than letting them chase her, was a mystery to Vi, and if Caitlyn's gaze was any indication, to the sheriff as well.

"You don't trust me? I do have a degree in psychology in Zaun!" exclaimed the criminal, hammering her fists down on the desk in a childish manner, the playing card falling off her stomach due to her movements, hopelessly forgotten and ignored even before it vanished beneath the desk.

"Yeah sure, whatever." snickered the enforcer with sarcasm, rolling her eyes at the now missing seriousness of the situation, the seriousness long gone, "Now, what was that about this game you wanted to play? What's that to do with this apparent doctor's degree you have?"

Jinx scowled, not taking too kindly at the distrust she received. Then again, she hadn't thought they'd believe her, anyways, and the question that Vi had just brought up was fitting perfectly into her plan, as it led them back to the reason she had set up all of this to begin with.

"Ah, yes!" exclaimed the madwoman, excitement flaring up again as she let go off her childishness and embraced her madness anew, "Lately, I've noticed some tension between the two of you, and don't even try to deny it! So, anyways, I've set my mind on it and here I am tonight, carefully saving your relationship and trying to find out whatever caused the problem to begin with so you can finally get your mind off it and be yourselves again."

She giggled, writhing in laughter on the desk between Piltover's finest, within an arm's reach, and yet so far away for either of them. This was the biggest tease ever, Vi knew that much. The woman she loathed and had chased for a long time now, just in arm's reach, and yet so far away!

"And so that you don't stand up and leave when things get uncomfortable, I _playfully_ placed those explosive whoopee cushions beneath your beautiful rears. So, it's either all of us finding out what's been causing this tension and how to get rid of it, or all of us being blown to pieces! Happy thoughts, aren't they? I'm getting excited! Look at all of this as a very effective psychological measure."

"Oh great, this got to be the most effective and definitely _legal_ psychological measure I've ever seen, and experienced. And believe me, Jinx, I had quite a few when I rehabilitated and became a cop, they put me through loads of tests to see if I was indeed not going to return to my criminal ways." huffed Vi, not excited at all.

Jinx raised an eyebrow, but the excited smile remained on her face.

"Well, you can always just _stand up_ and leave, fat hands."

"I'm fine. Thanks for the offer, you crazy bi..."

Caitlyn cringed madly when Jinx suddenly extended her right arm and laid it around Vi's neck, only to pull the unsuspecting enforcer's head towards her, head slamming hard into the wood again.

"Language, fat hands! I've warned you before, for you, I do make exceptions when it comes to punishment. And funny thing is, we haven't even started yet, and I've already punished you three times! New record, fat hands, no one managed to suck so much at my game before." snorted Jinx as she retracted her arm and laid it across her chest, facing the ceiling now and staring up at it, "You know the game is supposed to work different from that, right? You're supposed to answer my questions truthfully and not be punished!"

The madwoman turned her head to grin at the scowling enforcer.

"I do dare you to stand up, though, fat hands."

Vi didn't go for it, remained where she was, sitting in the chair and waiting for Jinx to finally start the game, so that they could get this over with.

"Thought as much." huffed Jinx in amusement, turning her head to face the ceiling again, after which she suddenly declared, "Okay, this went on for long enough! Question one!"

Both the sheriff and the enforcer fell silent as it began, the moment they had been afraid of, the moment when things turned serious again. Jinx, however, had merely raised an arm, as if to reach for the ceiling, and stared at the back of it.

"Hat lady, you've been awfully quiet. You're not participating in this, so you'll get the first question!" declared the criminal, lowering her arm again and turning her head to face the sheriff of Piltover, a smirk gracing her, as even Caitlyn had to admit, surprisingly cute features, "Don't worry, hats, it'll be an easy one to start this off slowly and find our way into a comfortable pace."

Caitlyn didn't relax at all. She didn't expect Jinx to, not figuratively, drop the bomb right away. She'd start with some distractions, a few more 'innocent' questions, before she'd get to the real reason why she had set all of this up.

Even Jinx wouldn't cause all the trouble for just a friendly game of 'truth or dare'. Though it would be fitting to rather call it 'truth or I-dare-you-to-stand-up-and-blow-us-up'.

"It's really not that hard." reassured Jinx, though her smirk implied otherwise, "Just tell me one thing, hat lady... Why did you chose fat hands? Of all criminals you have ever caught, why approach a girl who used modified mining rig fists as weapons?"

Now, both Vi and Caitlyn hadn't expected that question to be the one Jinx would start off with. Actually, they hadn't expected any questions regarding their relationship with one another, to begin with, as Jinx knew most of it already due to the long time they'd been hunting her by then.

Caitlyn shared a confused glance with her partner, but with a shrug, turned back to Jinx to answer the surprisingly easy question.

"Vi wasn't a regular criminal." replied the sheriff, but immediately saw that Jinx wasn't pleased with the answer. She rose an eyebrow questioningly at Caitlyn, then jerked her thumb into the direction of the enforcer as if she couldn't quite believe what Caitlyn was trying to tell her.

"I'm not an ordinary criminal as well... Does that mean I get my own police uniform now, too?" joked the criminal, but the scowl she received from Caitlyn just made her shrug, "Just a question. Please explain why fat hands was different. Did she have big hands back then already? A fat head to go along with it? She did retain her fat ass, that's for sure."

"Hey!" bellowed Vi, to which Jinx just stuck out her tongue at the enforcer and pulled on her right eyelid.

"Funny, Jinx, but no. Vi wasn't stealing from the innocent, but from other criminals at that time, which was how I first became aware of her. She left quite a few hideouts of other criminals in ruins, exposing them to us that way, often leaving entire gangs with broken bones and in equally worse states on the ground, meaning we only had to pick them up." huffed the sheriff, relaxing into her chair, laying one leg over the other and crossing her arms.

"I eventually saw Vi escape one of those hideouts one day and decided to follow her, which was how I found where she had been hiding at that time. Seeing how Vi was powerful, had the skills of a master mechanic and always ready to beat up criminals, I made up my mind and decided to offer her a life on the other side of the law. I felt that she was different, that she wasn't a criminal by choice, and that she still had a sense of what was right and what was wrong – only a little twisted, which it still is today."

"Can't disagree with that." snorted Vi, reminiscing as well, nodding to herself, "At first, I kinda only wanted to join ya because it meant I could beat up crooks without being forced to run from the cops, but the idea of paying my debts to the society wasn't that unappealing either. And whadda'ya know, I enjoyed the job so much I stayed!"

Jinx frowned as she heard this, stopping for a short moment to let her mind wander a bit, once more only staring up at the ceiling with a blank gaze. The two cops took advantage of that moment to share a glance over the criminal's body, but didn't dare to try and speak. After all, they were still sitting on mines, and Jinx could decide that any kind of violation of her rules was enough to help someone stand up.

Even Vi didn't want to dare that, not because of her own life, but because of Caitlyn's. She didn't want the last thing she'd do to cause Caitlyn's death. She couldn't live with that, and even less die with it.

So they waited. Waited until Jinx snapped out of it after about two minutes to look at the enforcer, though there was no amusement in Jinx's gaze this time.

"You suck, fat hands."

Vi cringed, having expected anything but that. What did Jinx even say that for? Was this to provoke her? If so, she had managed to do that wonderfully!

"I didn't even do a thing!" growled Vi, hands clenching around the armrests of her chair, one eye twitching dangerously.

"Yeah, that's kind of the thing." sighed Jinx as she suddenly rolled off the table and landed in front of the enforcer, frowning at her, "It's boring if you don't fight it. Want me to help you?"

Vi rose the twitching eye's eyebrow higher, but before she got the chance to ask the madwoman what that was supposed to mean, Jinx had already started.

Started to shake Vi back and forth by her shoulders, causing the entire chair to swing back and forth dangerously. Caitlyn held her breath as she saw this, growing pale again at the thought that, if Vi fell over, they'd all be blown up.

"Are you goddamn crazy? Stop shaking me!" roared Vi as she tried her best to not fall over, staring in shock at the now laughing criminal that was shaking her, certainly not enjoying the situation like Jinx did. Vi knew she had to stop this, and knew only one way to do this.

She pulled her leg up.

Jinx's eyes widened as she doubled over, Vi's knee having hit her right into the stomach. All air forced out of her lungs, Jinx fell back until her lower back rested against the desk and coughed, holding her stomach. But Jinx was anything but defeated.

If anything, she was enjoying the pain a little too much for the two panicked cops liking, laughing to herself in between coughing.

"That's the spirit, fat hands! That's a lot better! Gave you quite a scare, didn't I?" snickered the criminal, climbing back onto the desk while sending a short glance to the sheriff, who had become quite pale. The criminal rose an eyebrow at the sheriff, who didn't seem to like her mind games at all, but simply shrugged and turned back to her favorite enforcer.

"So, fat hands, ready for your question?" smirked Jinx, brushing the strand of electric-blue hair out of her face. Vi bared her teeth and snarled, a little too much like a dog for Jinx's taste and much to her amusement, as she couldn't let go of the idea of Caitlyn putting a dog collar around the enforcer's neck. Vi certainly had to be put on a leash, at least.

"I'm ready to punch your face, Jinx. It's so sad that you only have one ugly smile, since I've got two fists." shot Vi back – again, only fueling Jinx's amusement.

"Ha! Nice one, fat hands. Really, ever thought about becoming a _stand-up _comedian?"

Vi shuddered at the thought of standing up and fell silent again, much to the madwoman's further amusement. She knew she should've thought about something like this earlier, cause there she was, sitting only an arm's reach away from both cops, and they couldn't do a thing against her.

Even Vi's snarky comments and threats were empty.

"No? How sad. Anyways, up for the question?" began Jinx anew, the smirk growing wider, "And please, if you are about to make a comment about uppercutting me... Think about how up is definitely the wrong direction for you to go right now."

Vi's snarl grew louder, especially because she knew that Jinx was right, but other than that, she didn't do a thing. Jinx giggled to herself.

"Okay, here goes, fat hands!" she exclaimed, before leaning forwards, resting her chin on her hands and crossing her legs, "I'm interested in my favorite enforcer's love life!"

Oh, and how she enjoyed the blank look of shock from the enforcer. Surely she had not suspected such a question! Jinx waited until the enforcer's shock turned into anger again before she continued, knowing that Vi wouldn't be able to truly listen in a shocked state.

"Yes, I'm interested in your love life, fat hands." she repeated, before continuing in a distinct British accent, definitely meant to impersonate the sheriff of Piltover, sending a whole new shock through Vi, "So, anyone you fancy? Any guy that you'd just love to..."

"Shut it, Jinx!" roared the enforcer suddenly, slamming both hands down on the armrests of the chair she sat in, actually catching Jinx off guard, "I don't know how the heck you found out about that, but... Yeah, I'm gay! That's what you wanted to hear, isn't it? What you wanted me to say, huh?"

Vi narrowed her eyes at the surprised madwoman, rage getting the better of her.

"Like I said, I don't know how you found out about that, and I seriously don't care right now. What you should know, though, is that I'm not going to play this game of yours by your rules! I'm not going to allow you to tease or mock me with some kind of information you found out about me, so I'm admitting it right away: I'm gay as hell, and not for you."

Jinx was speechless for a moment, her mouth opening and closing without a sound coming out, even if she apparently tried to say something. The unintended imitation of a fish, especially from Jinx, would've been amusing as hell to the enforcer on any other day, but tonight was different.

Jinx was different.

Vi glanced past Jinx, just in time to see the confused expression of Caitlyn turn into a questioning one. They didn't have time to exchange any words though, as Jinx recovered from the surprise that moment and rose an eyebrow at Vi.

"So sad, and here I hoped you liked me the way I do like you!" mocked Jinx, trying to cover her slip-up, though she let out an uneasy cough right after that, "To be honest, though, I didn't know."

Vi cringed.

"Wait... But the way you phrased it and..." Vi trailed off, now to be the one to caught off guard. Jinx rose her eyebrow higher, but the smirk was back, knowing that she was back in control of the situation now.

"Anyways, nice to know, fat hands. I wasn't aiming to learn that about you, but I guess you just made me see you in a whole different light!" Jinx erupted into mad laughter, holding her stomach as she fell over and lay down on the desk again, the thought of Vi embarrassing herself growing funnier to her with any passing second.

Vi, at the same time, merely blushed and grew silent, suddenly not so eager anymore to go against Jinx's rules.

For a while, only Jinx's laughter echoed through the room while Caitlyn remained silent, almost as if hoping that Jinx would completely forget about her, while Vi tried her best to fight the blush, which just wouldn't leave due to Jinx's laughter continually reminding her of her embarrassing outburst.

"Well, that was funny!" managed Jinx to choke eventually, still recovering but already leaning towards the enforcer, wiping away an imaginary tear, "See? That was the kind of fun I was expecting from our little game! I told you that you knew how to have a good time, fat hands!"

The enforcer was back to only snarling in reply, the mixture of different emotions getting the better of her. She shifted uncomfortably in her chair, silently swore to herself that she would've already strangled the loose cannon to death if there weren't a bomb underneath her, and only continued to stare at the criminal.

But Jinx had already decided that her next question was going to be directed at Caitlyn, and turned around to look at the sheriff. Caitlyn cringed when Jinx turned to face her, her expression growing serious again, each passing second in which Jinx just stared at her and didn't say a thing a constant torture to her, because she knew that this meant that Jinx was looking for something especially mean.

But she already knew what Jinx was going to ask anyways, and the answer was already prepared when Jinx finally opened her mouth.

"Okay, hat lady, I give, I don't..."

"Don't dare to say anything about me being involved with Jayce or anything like that. I don't even like men in that way, I'm a lesbian, too. I just never found the time to look for the right girl, since I barely find any free time due to how time-consuming my job is."

Silence spread through the room, Jinx's mouth still open, stuck in the middle of saying a word, and Vi being the one to look honestly surprised now. Caitlyn did not blush as she admitted it, having come to terms with it several years ago. Also, she had known of her partner's preferences, having heard that Vi was a regular at a bar, where she flirted with girls – she hadn't been surprised when Vi admitted it, she knew it already, but what did surprise her was how Vi had apparently been embarrassed by saying it in front of her.

The sheriff was quite honest with herself, though – she had thought about a relationship with the enforcer before when they got closer, however, had put that possibility aside, fearing that their job would most likely get in the way. As such, she had never made any advances on Vi, and had never considered telling her about her own preferences, since, quite honestly, her job always came first, and then her personal stuff.

"I don't have any idea what question I could ask you...?" finished Jinx suddenly, still dumbstruck. The second slip-up in just a few minutes. The cops really were put under a little more pressure than she had thought, blurting out things like that.

Not that the game wasn't funny that way. Blurting out random things could be quite fun, though she always got charged for disturbing the peace and public indecency for it.

But now, the situation was kind of different. It wasn't her who blurted out things, and even if it was kind of amusing that the cops were blurting out things, it was also confusing and too quick for her tastes, since she had planned for the game to last longer. As such, she frowned at Caitlyn, and Caitlyn frowned right back, both of them ignoring Vi's confused glances at either of them.

"Wow, you really found each other, huh?" muttered Jinx, but this time, there was no hint of amusement there. She seemed honestly surprised. She was. Not by the revelations of the cops, since she had known these things about her favorite cops before, but by how fast they were to admit it.

Which was, after all, kind of ruining the game for her. It was no fun if she didn't get to tease it out of them.

"And people say I'm crazy." she added eventually though, a little amused at the irony, "Ah, I always wanted to say that!".

The criminal let out a deep and dramatic huff, turning away from the sheriff to frown at the ceiling again. Vi tried to meet the sheriff's gaze, but Caitlyn didn't look at her anymore, just staring with a serious expression at the lazy woman on the desk in between them, who sent a glance towards the clock.

Suddenly, Jinx turned back to her, still no amusement in her eyes.

"Do you two have, like, a thing going on?"

Caitlyn saw Vi shudder and blush again on the other side of Jinx, and came to the conclusion that the enforcer apparently didn't like to talk about her love life, being the only thing that Caitlyn had ever seen that would throw Vi off like that with words alone.

Her gaze wandered back to the still frowning madwoman.

"No." she replied, simple as that, nothing more. Jinx seemed to be somewhat pleased by that answer, getting lost in thoughts again.

By now, even Caitlyn had to admit it: The situation was growing less and less dangerous by the minute, with Jinx slowly getting lost in thought a lot more, which, quite honestly, was a rare thing for the loose cannon to do.

Why was this bothering her so much? And when had this turned into a conversation about love and preferences? And how? Why was Jinx so interested in their relationship?

"You two should seriously hook up."

Now, even Caitlyn cringed, the thoughtful tone of the loose cannon throwing her off guard. This was so unlike Jinx that it was scary again.

The loose cannon, who had crossed her arms in behind her head now and rested it on them, turned her gaze to the sheriff of Piltover anew, staring at her.

"I'm serious. The by-the-books sheriff and the hotheaded enforcer. Brain and brawn, think about it." continued Jinx – and suddenly, as if it had never been gone in the first place, the mad smirk appeared on her lips again in it's full strength, though Caitlyn only got to see it for a second, as Jinx suddenly turned to look the other way.

"Yo, fat hands, whadda'ya think about it? Ya got a crush on the lovely hat lady here, ain't I right?"

Vi scowled at her nemesis, eyes narrowing dangerously. She didn't seem to plan on replying though, something that greatly displeased Jinx. Not wanting to move her arms, though, Jinx rose her right leg and moved it so that her foot was resting against Vi's sternum, ready to push her over and trigger the mine she sat on.

"What if I do?" snarled the enforcer suddenly, "So I do, now what?"

"Now?" questioned Jinx, raising an eyebrow, "Now, my dear fat hands, I want you to be honest. I want the truth."

"Truth?! That is the truth! I answered your question!" roared Vi back. Jinx gently shoved her foot into Vi's sternum in reply.

"What? You want me to spell it for you, Jinx?!"

"Remember what I said about Pow-Pow not liking liars, fat hands?" inquired Jinx in return, raising the other eyebrow as well.

"I'm not lying! What the hell, I'm even admitting I've got a teeny crush on her!" snarled Vi, leaning forward in the chair to threaten the madwoman with a fist. Not that Jinx cared, she just glanced down at the fist that Vi had shoved under her nose.

"You do want me to tell Pow-Pow, do ya, fat hands? You do want to be hurt, eh?"

"What do you want, Jinx?! What do you want me to say?!"

"The truth, fat hands, and nothing but the truth!"

"I'm telling you the truth! Stop terrorizing me already!"

Caitlyn, who had watched the exchange, shuddered at the sudden whine to Vi's voice. Could it really be? Was Vi really pleading Jinx to stop? Had Jinx finally broken her, after all?

"That's not a truth, fat hands. You're lying~" giggled Jinx and pushed the fist away, leaning closer to Vi's face, eyes narrowing dangerously as her insane smirk grew.

"It is the truth! I have a crush on Cait! Now stop it!"

"I'm going to make you admit the real truth, fat hands~! You cannot lie forever, ya know? You'll have to admit it to yourself, and to us! Don't you think that _Caitlyn _has a right to know? I think she does! So, if you could just...!"

"Okay, I admit it!" roared the enforcer, and if it hadn't been for Jinx immediately pushing her down by her shoulders, she would've got up, "It's not a crush, and certainly not a small one! Damn it, yes, I'm head over heels for her! Now stop your mind games! Stop it or I'll smash your face in!"

Jinx, after making sure that Vi wouldn't try to get up again, pushed herself off the enforcer's shoulders and fell back onto the desk, the smirk on her lips having reached a size that neither cop had ever seen before.

This had to be the ultimate amusement for her, having the two cops to her mercy, forcing them to reveal their deepest secrets in a psychological game that seemed invisible to the naked eye.

"See, was that so hard, fat hands?" sniggered the loose cannon, leaning over the table so that she was closer to a speechless Caitlyn, "Isn't our enforcer just the cutest? She's so embarrassed about her true feelings! Like a little school girl, she can't just voice them, and under pressure just blurts them out!"

The sheriff of Piltover had both mouth and eyes wide open by now, staring past Jinx at her partner – even as Jinx, frowning skeptically, waved a hand in front of the sheriff's eyes, which meant that Caitlyn was effectively staring right through her.

Caitlyn was not reacting to anything, even if the woman with the electric-blue hair had really hoped for a different reaction, something more interesting. But this reaction was dull, weird and a little scary.

Jinx didn't like that. Not one bit.

But she knew how to fix it.

Turning back to the enforcer, who refused to meet Caitlyn's empty gaze, blushing madly as she studied the wall to her right, Jinx frowned. This was all going into a different direction than she expected at first. For one, she had expected this game to last longer, but they were already nearing the end. Also, was it just her or were both the enforcer and the sheriff like school girls when it came to love? They've been blushing the whole time now, and were blurting things out that Jinx hadn't even meant to hear until way later into the game!

Seeing the lack of reaction from the sheriff and the silent state that the enforcer had fallen into, Jinx groaned and rolled her eyes. Seems it was time for the ultimate step, even though it meant to end her game way sooner than she wanted.

But yeah, they'd probably thank her later for it.

"Yo, fat hands!" chuckled Jinx, making the enforcer cringe and turn her gaze to her, staring at her in a mixture of disgust and embarrassment, "I think I've got something you'll enjoy~."

Before Vi could ask, Jinx had hopped off the desk again and rounded the enforcer. Vi let out a short protest, though it was drowned out by the noise of the chair that Vi sat in being pushed over the tiled floor, closer to the desk, so close that Vi could've laid down on it with her upper body without triggering the mine she sat on.

The enforcer meant to ask right away, all embarrassment exchanged for a new fit of anger, what this had to do with something she'd enjoy, but Jinx had already stepped around the table and had repeated the process with Caitlyn, which not only snapped it out of her stupor, but also placed her on the other side of the desk, right across from Vi.

With that done, Jinx just climbed back onto the desk and laid down on it again, staring at the ceiling as if nothing had happened. Both cops were staring at her in nothing but confusion, but Jinx had expected exactly that, and waited a few more seconds to allow the two cops to come up with their own theories as to why Jinx had just put them closer to the desk.

"Fat hands..." began Jinx eventually, not even turning to the enforcer, "You may kiss the bride now, or stand up and blow us up. Your choice."

"Wait, what?!" shrieked Caitlyn, her head immediately turning red in utter embarrassment. That reaction alone sent Jinx into another fit of laughter – but what really did it for her was the expression of Vi's face as she glanced to the enforcer.

Vi wasn't looking at her but at Caitlyn, and her expression was utterly serious. Jinx knew what it meant – Vi was actually considering to do it.

"This is not a question, Jinx."

Jinx's smirk was wiped off her face, leaving the loose cannon to frown at the enforcer, who was staring at her from the corner of her eyes. Jinx didn't immediately understand, especially not why Vi would smirk at her like that.

But Jinx knew what it meant – she had lost control of the situation again. Vi had it now.

"To kiss Cait is not a question, Jinx." repeated the enforcer, the smirk growing bigger, "But we're playing truth or dare here. So, is it a dare?"

Jinx finally caught on, and couldn't help but smirk. Vi wasn't just thinking about doing it, she would do it. A simple nod, more of a reply didn't Jinx give to the enforcer – but it was enough for Vi. The cop let out a soft sigh as she turned her eyes back to her blushing partner.

"I'm sorry, Cait. I'm sorry that we're in this situation..." the enforcer trailed off as she leaned forward, leaning over the body of the criminal on the desk between her and her partner, still not getting up from her seat. Due to being closer to the desk now, though, she didn't have to, since her lips were already nearly touching Caitlyn's, and unless the sheriff would pull back, she would be able to lean in completely.

"I'm sorry we're in this situation..." she repeated again, her eyes searching those of the sheriff, noticing the hint of hesitation in them but unable to hold back the thought of how cute Caitlyn looked, and taking note of how Caitlyn hadn't pulled away despite having the chance to do so, "...and I'm sorry that I'm enjoying this."

And with that, Vi's lips claimed those of Caitlyn, at first soft and gently, but continually growing hungrier and wilder. Especially when Caitlyn started to respond to the kiss.

The loose cannon, meanwhile, grinned madly as she watched the two woman kiss right above her. Had any of the two cops glanced at her in that moment, they would've noticed the certain glow of hunger in Jinx's eyes, the greedy movement of her tongue across her upper lip, or how the madwoman's hands clenched tighter around the wood of the desk she still lay on, but the two cops were too occupied with themselves to even remember the criminal.

Even as they finally broke apart, the need for air growing too much for them to handle, did the spell put on them not break. With nearly closed eyes, they stared at one another, Vi's gaze on Caitlyn's lips, and the sheriff smiling at her partner's unusual silence and her relaxed face.

They didn't remember Jinx at that moment, didn't remember what had brought them to that point, what had helped them in finally reaching that point in their relationship, the awkward topic they had always managed to avoid now resolved.

But they did remember Jinx as the madwoman suddenly sat up in between them.

With the spell suddenly broken, the magic of the moment gone, Caitlyn recoiled and blushed, falling back into her chair with enough force to almost knock it over. At the same time, Vi gasped and froze, only to then act on instinct and throw a punch at their nemesis, habit taking over.

Jinx had somehow expected this and caught the fist, first frowning at the enforcer and her reaction, and then grinning madly at her.

Neither woman said a word as Jinx suddenly hopped off the desk, letting out a content hum as she stood aside it and stretched her limbs. She rolled her shoulders and moved her head a bit, and then turned to the two cops with the biggest smirk that either of them had ever seen on the loose cannon's face.

"Well, this was fun and all, but I guess our game must come to an end now!" giggled Jinx, not noticing the mixed reactions of relief and embarrassment of the two cops, "It's all fun and games until there's a couple and a fifth wheel. Which means that, now that the truth is revealed and my psychological measure has been successful, it's my cue to leave! I hate being the fifth wheel."

The loose cannon proudly strode through the room and up to one of the windows, one finger sliding over the cold shutters as she came to a stop in front of them.

"Don't be sad, we'll soon get another chance to play!" she declared next, turning her head a little to smugly smirk over her shoulder at the still stunned cops, "Which reminds me, this game isn't completely over yet!"

Without looking back to the shutters, Jinx grabbed a handful of them and ripped them right off, the shutters clattering as they hit the ground to her feet. The criminal opened the window with the same hand that had just ripped off the shutters, but did turn back to the window to do so.

"Let's see it's..." Jinx trailed off to glance towards the clock in the room, checking for the time, "Ah yes, perfect! Anyways, you're lucky, you two! The whoopee cushions of mine that you're sitting on will disable in exactly five minutes, which means you're free to leave then. Don't get up a single seconds sooner, though, or you might be blown to pieces after all, and that without me! That'd be sad, wouldn't it?"

No one dared to say a word, both Caitlyn and Vi still too stunned by the events that had transpired, which left Jinx to continue smirking at them.

Seeing that nothing else would happen, the criminal snorted and stretched her limbs for a last time, right before she climbed onto the windowsill and leaned out of the window that she had opened.

"Well, it's been fun and all, but I have to go now! You can thank me another time, or don't thank me at all, I don't care! Let's just say that I did all of this to help two good friends... Oh, and please don't go and do all the naughty stuff just tonight, no matter how much the two of ya want it. Doing it so soon after getting together, it usually only serves to either make the relationship a completely physical one real soon, or for it to become for granted and all the romantic stuff that makes a relationship so special is completely ignored. You should date a little while, not to get to know each other, since ya do it already, but to get more comfortable with the thought of having a relationship that goes beyond friendship and work!"

And with that, the loose cannon let herself fall forwards and let gravity do it's work, vanishing from the sight of the cops, out into the darkness of the night. Out into the unknown.

Jinx had escaped them once more, and this time, they couldn't have done a thing about it.

It was silent in the room after that, no one daring to make a move or say a word. Even as the five minutes were over, neither Caitlyn, nor Vi dared to stand up, not only too lost in thought about the whole situation, but also about what Jinx had said last, and hesitating because they both feared the mines could be triggered after all and wanted to be sure that that wouldn't happen.

It was maybe twenty minutes later that Vi finally let out a sigh and, after closing her eyes and gathering all her courage, rose from her chair, at first slowly, then with what was nearly a jump.

And nothing happened.

Only after Vi stood and the two of them hadn't been blown up did Caitlyn slowly stand up as well. As soon as she stood, however, she turned around and kicked the chair away from her, sending it sliding across the floor, but not knocking it over.

"I'll never sit down on a chair, not without checking if there's some kind of explosive attached to it or hidden somewhere!" declared the sheriff of Piltover in a fit of hysteria, bringing as much distance as possible between her and the chairs, back resting against the wall eventually.

Her partner, on the other hand, remained where she was, next to her chair, and frowned down at it. For some reason, she didn't like something about it. She knew Jinx too well to know that things never were what they appeared to be.

So she reached for the seat cushion, curled her fingers around it, and yanked it off the chair.

And, as she saw what Jinx had hidden beneath the seat cushion, threw her hands into the air, much like at the beginning of that night's events, and let out a cry of utter frustration.

Even Caitlyn let out a groan and collapsed onto the floor, burying her face in her hands.

On the chair lay no contact mine, as Jinx had made them believe. All along, the two cops had been sitting on regular red-colored whoopee cushions, though they had been cut so that they wouldn't make a noise when sat on.

Vi suppressed the urge to jump out of the window and chase after the criminal to strangle her with her bare hands, though she knew that Jinx was long gone. So instead, she angrily stomped through the room and picked up her still discarded gauntlets, attaching them to her back like she usually did to carry them.

Only after that did the enforcer let out a deep sigh and relaxed again, realizing that all anger was pointless, and that she'd eventually get her chance to let it out on Jinx the next time she'd see the criminal.

For the rest of the night, there was something more important.

Turning her head so that she could see her partner, Vi found her still on the ground, though she had looked up and met her gaze now. Vi had a hard time holding back the blush that threatened to show up on her face as she remembered what Jinx had made them do at the end, but still let out an uneasy cough and walked over to Caitlyn.

She offered a hand to the sheriff, who gladly accepted it, and smiled sheepishly at her partner.

"So, uh... That was a thing, eh, cupcake? Do you think she really did it to help us? I mean... Jinx, helping us?" chuckled Vi uneasily, especially as she saw Caitlyn roll her eyes at her. With Caitlyn's hand still in hers, Vi swallowed the nervousness that was threatening to take over, glanced to the clock, and then at Caitlyn again.

"Hey, uh, cupcake... Want to grab a bite? I know it's kinda late, with it being past midnight, but I'm feeling a little hungry right now for some reason."

Caitlyn rolled her eyes again, especially at the new powerful meaning behind the nickname and Vi's sheepishness, but nonetheless smiled and nodded.

"Yes, I know what you mean. I'm feeling a little peckish myself."

Vi's smile was brighter than a thousand suns after hearing that, and all the somewhat dark events of the evening were suddenly irrelevant to the sheriff of Piltover. So, without letting go of Vi's hand, she guided her partner over to the door, picked up her rifle on the way, and pulled the door open, allowing her and Vi to leave the office as well, wanting to forget the events of the night.

And since they were pretty much overshadowed by the outcome of the events, neither of them believed that it would take all too long.

Little did they know, though, that the criminal in question, the one responsible for all of it, stood just outside of the window, hidden in the darkness, and smirked madly to herself.

* * *

It was two days later that the two cops, which by now were indeed in a relationship, stood in a simple but mostly uninhabited apartment building. It was the fourth story, apartment number 42, that Caitlyn had managed to trace as the apartment she was supposed to have rented.

Though anyone and anything could wait inside, it was just the two of them in front of that door, no backup at all. For some reason, neither of them was afraid that whatever was inside would turn out to be a big threat.

In fact, though they had not talked about it, they did have very similar theories as to what would await them inside.

Exchanging nothing but a simple glance and a nod, it was Caitlyn who took a deep breath and rose one hand to knock on the door, seeing as Vi couldn't without knocking the door down, as she was wearing her hextech gauntlets.

"This is the Sheriff of Piltover, open the door!" shouted Caitlyn, hand still resting against the door. When no answer came from the other side of the door, not a single noise or any other kind of reaction, Caitlyn knocked again, this time harder, hammering her fist against the wood.

"I repeat: This is the Sheriff of Piltover, open this door immediately!" she commanded, now more fierce and louder. Again, no reaction came, and Caitlyn knew that they had to result to more drastic measures. Sharing a glance with Vi, she nodded to the enforcer and took three steps back at once, allowing her partner to do her work.

Vi smirked as she stepped up to the door and prepared her gauntlets, charging them up.

"Don't say we didn't warn you!" shouted Vi, clearly amused, though holding back on adding 'Jinx', which was her suspicion. A single punch was enough to end the life of the wooden door, the huge hextech gauntlet ending it's existence. Wood shattered under the power of Vi's punch, splinters flying everywhere, the remains of the door slamming into the next wall inside the apartment and thus breaking as well.

Caitlyn slipped past Vi and into the apartment, sending a single glance right to find that the hallway she was in ended there, then glancing left. Spotting that the next door was slightly ajar and some noises were coming from the room that lay behind it, voices, Caitlyn rushed towards it and pressed her back against the wall next to the door, hands curling tighter around her rifle.

Vi followed her, though she remained behind the sheriff for now, awaiting her commands. Caitlyn counted the remaining doors in the hallway, two doors which led to a small bathroom and a bedroom, at least if what she had seen on the maps of the building was right, and send Vi past the slightly ajar door to the two doors with a single gesture, wanting to save the open room next to her for last, knowing it could be a trap if they truly had to deal with Jinx there.

The enforcer understood the gesture and slipped past her partner, nearing the first door in surprisingly quiet steps for someone who carried huge metal fists, and waited in front of it. Another glance was exchanged with Caitlyn, and it was all she needed to know to understand.

She kicked the door open and glared into the now exposed interior of the room behind it, which turned out to be a simple bathroom, leaving no space to hide, barely allowing a person to turn inside it, and certainly not allowing the enforcer with the hextech gauntlets to step inside. But she didn't have to. The light that fell into the room from the hallway she was in illuminated the room enough for her to see that no one was inside.

Turning to Caitlyn, Vi shook her head, signaling that the room was empty.

A single step separated Vi from the other room, and so, she could kick the door open after taking that step. The room she now stood in front of was a simple bedroom, but unlike the bathroom, definitely had some hiding spots. She signaled Caitlyn that she'd take a look into the bedroom, then vanished inside to check the few hiding spots the room had.

Caitlyn didn't have to wait long for Vi to reappear, shaking her head. The room, too, was empty. That left them with the slightly ajar door, the room that the low voices came from, the room that was obviously the room they were supposed to enter.

Gesturing Vi to wait, Caitlyn, back still pressed against the wall aside the door, gently pushed the door. It opened a little further, but, as Caitlyn had intended, didn't open completely. Leaning a little to the side, she glanced into the room through the gap, checking the door for any booby traps triggered by wire or something similar, but found none.

Now ensured of that, she gave Vi the gesture the enforcer had waited for. Pulling her head back and thus giving Vi the space she needed, she watched as the enforcer slammed her fists together, smirked, and then simply charged at the door.

"It's your playmates, Jinx, and we're brought our own game this time!" roared the enforcer as she slammed into the wood, "Here comes Vi!"

The door was ripped out of one hinge, hanging pitifully from the remaining one, as Vi stormed into the room, Caitlyn following immediately by slipping into the room along the wall, rifle ready and pointing into the room, scanning it for any sign of the madwoman they suspected to be behind the theft of their IDs and the strange renting of the cartoon and the apartment.

But there was no Jinx.

A red couch stood in the middle of the room, though it would barely fit one person due to being covered in screws, bolts, metal pieces and unfinished and obviously destroyed gadgets, which was definitely a trademark of Jinx. The madwoman was messy as hell, and the few hideouts of the loose cannon that they had discovered and busted were always looking like the living room that they now stood in looked like.

A mess, that was the living room they stood in.

Aside the couch, there was little that was standing out, other than the mess. It was a neatly furnished and simple living room as you'd expect from a regular apartment, with part of the living room serving as a kitchen, separated only by a wall with a service hatch in it.

But what did catch Caitlyn's eye was the source of the voices they had heard, and were still hearing: It was a TV, a cartoon running on it. A cartoon that showed a man with skin as white as chalk, a sick unnatural smile and green hair, laughing in an eerie way that reminded Piltover's finest of a certain nemesis with electric-blue hair.

"What is this...?" grumbled Vi as she lowered her fists and approached the TV, only mildly interested in the running show, "Where's Jinx? This is definitely her work, the mess alone is enough to tell me this. Genius or not, she's a madwoman, always trying to build something, and not caring what happens to the stuff she never finishes, doesn't need any longer, or lost interest in. Really, she's like a little kid, so easy to excite, and always distracted by something else she deems interesting."

Caitlyn, meanwhile, had begun to search the room for their nemesis, starting with the space behind the couch, and then the cupboards, not wanting to fall for that kind of hiding place a second time. However, Jinx was nowhere to be found.

She had been there, and that quite recently. The TV was an indication for that, and Caitlyn did find a few more things that suggested the same. However, nothing seemed utterly out of place, nor to give any indication where Jinx had gone. The windows were all closed and locked from the inside, so Jinx hadn't escaped through them, and other than the windows, the door was the only other way to escape the apartment.

Jinx should still be there. It was as if she had dropped everything where she last stood when she had heard the cops, and yet she wasn't there. But people don't just vanish, and Caitlyn was quite sure that Jinx couldn't just turn invisible.

So where was she? Where could she hide? They had searched everywhere already, the apartment wasn't that big.

The sound of metal hitting the ground alerted Caitlyn and she whirled around, rifle pointing into the general direction she had heard the noise coming from, but she relaxed when she saw that it was just Vi, who had pushed some of the mess off the couch to flop down on it.

Caitlyn rolled her eyes at her lazy partner and girlfriend, but didn't say a thing. Instead, she decided to focus on searching through the cupboards more intensively, suspecting a secret passage behind a fake wall or something like that.

"Ya know, cupcake..." called Vi suddenly over her shoulder, gaze still remaining on the TV, "I always knew Jinx was insane, but now I'm sure she's childish as well. I mean, this cartoon... Okay, that clown-guy is quite creepy, actually. Reminds me a little of her. Think they're related or something?"

Caitlyn didn't laugh at Vi's joke. This didn't really surprise Vi, the sheriff was pretty serious, after all. However, hearing the sheriff steps grow louder, meaning she was approaching her, Vi did turn her head to look at her partner.

Caitlyn held several different things in her hand, presenting them to Vi with a frown. The enforcer leaned over the couch to grab one of the things, which was a piece of paper that, on closer inspection, turned out to be another faked doctor's degree in psychology for a certain 'Dr. Jinx'.

When Caitlyn nodded to the next thing in her hands, Vi took it too, and shuddered as she realized what she held in her hand: Her own ID, the real one. And, as she suspected, Caitlyn's ID was the next thing that she managed to grab from the pile of things that Caitlyn held.

"Where did you find it?" muttered Vi, turning her ID over to look at the back of it, almost expecting one of Jinx's weird doodles.

"These things were in the cupboard back there." replied Caitlyn quietly, nodding to the open cupboard on the other side of the room, "These things lay inside in a pile of other things."

"So it was Jinx, huh...? She really stole our IDs, and rented this apartment with yours..." mused the enforcer, to which Caitlyn gave a nod.

"And not only that." added the sheriff and showed her partner the last thing she held in her hand, a DVD case with a small pink post-it attached to it. And though Vi couldn't see the whole title on the cover due to Caitlyn's hand covering part of it, the fact that it began with 'Bat' was enough for her to know what Caitlyn tried to tell her.

"Wait, are you telling me that THAT..." Vi trailed off to point at the TV for a second, then at the case in Caitlyn's hand, "...is the cartoon someone rented with my ID? Woah, Jinx is getting more and more immature with each thing she does, huh?"

"Wait until you read the post-it. That's not immature at all." intervened Caitlyn, handing Vi the DVD case so that she could get a better look at the post-it, while she went and turned the TV off and retrieved the DVD.

"It says 'Thanks, fat hands, I knew you wouldn't be mad about me renting this using your ID. When you find this, it's probably _a little_ past the day this should be returned, so would you kindly do that for me? Oh, and of course, pay for it? It's been rented with your name, after all, and I don't have the money for such an expensive thing! I have bombs to build, do you even know how expensive that is? Oh, and tell the hat lady I said hi, and tell her to pay the rent for this apartment, yeah? And of course, the repairs. Love, Jinx.'..." muttered Vi.

And went red in anger.

"Outrageous! That sassy, good-for-nothing, thieving little...!"

"Vi, calm down!" commanded her partner, and though it didn't calm the enforcer down, it made her stop the name-calling and restrain it to a single cry of anger and frustration. She caught the case as Vi threw it, quickly put the DVD back inside, then closed it. As she spotted the post-it, though, she stopped and frowned.

"What does she mean with 'paying for the repairs', though? What repairs? This apartment may be a mess, but there's nothing broken..." she mused, getting lost in thought.

As if to add to Vi's frustration and irritation, a noise made the two cops turn to the hallway at that moment. Vi was the first one to dash out of the door, entering the hallway just in time to spot Jinx escaping the little bathroom, having apparently appeared out of nowhere.

"You fell for the old empty room trick, fat hands!"

The enforcer reacted in spite of her anger, or rather in her anger, and swung her right fist at the height of Jinx's head, meaning to knock the criminal out. The madwoman, however, ducked underneath the huge fist and slipped past Vi, on purpose knocking into her to make her stumble back.

"Cait, she's here! She was in the bathroom, somehow!" roared Vi before she landed ungracefully on her rear, cursing in pain.

Caitlyn was ready to catch the criminal, too, having realized it would be her. With Vi blocking the way to the front door, Jinx would have to go escape through the living room, the sheriff had come to that conclusion before Jinx had knocked into Vi. Thus, she already had taken cover behind the couch in case the criminal was armed, rifle laid onto the backrest and pointing at the door, waiting for Jinx to appear inside it.

Jinx did appear, but proved to outsmart even Caitlyn again by jumping into the room rather than running into it, thus avoiding the bullet meant to pierce one of her legs to send her falling to the ground or at least slow her down. Wood splintered as the bullet hit the doorframe instead of Jinx's leg, followed by the sharp noise of Jinx's Zap charging up and forcing Caitlyn to take cover behind the couch, not eager to be hit by the electrical discharge of the weapon.

She emerged after the shot, knowing Zap had to charge again, and meant to shoot another time at Jinx, but it was too late for that – when she had pointed her rifle at the madwoman and was ready to shoot, Jinx had already jumped.

Straight through the window.

The sound of shattering glass echoed through the room for a second, and Caitlyn perked up, shocked at the insanity of the woman. They were in the fourth story, after all!

Emerging from behind her couch, rifle still at her side, the sheriff quickly made her way over to the window that Jinx had just jumped through, stepping onto broken glass during the last steps. The moment she reached the window, she was already pointing her rifle outside, scanning the street below for Jinx – or what had remained of her.

Madness did not make immortal, after all, and did not protect you from falling four stories deep.

"Damn it, cupcake, she's certainly no idiot!" growled Vi as she entered the living room behind Caitlyn, "I just checked the bathroom again, and found footprints just below the ceiling. She must've used the limited space of the bathroom and the walls to climb up to the ceiling and support herself just below when she heard us at the door. Of course I didn't look up! I should've known better, Jinx is no normal criminal, she's mad and unpredictable!"

"You could say that. She just jumped through a window without opening it first." shot Caitlyn back, still looking for Jinx below, though without success so far.

"She really is a crazy one." sighed Vi as she walked up to the window to the right of Caitlyn, wanting to help her in her search for Jinx.

She didn't have to.

"Hey, hats, I'm over here! Thanks for worrying, but I'm fine!"

Caitlyn pulled her rifle up, scanning a higher point for Jinx now, the source of the voice being not too far from them as she had guessed at first. She really found Jinx, though not on the street below, but the flat roof of a smaller building on the other side of the street.

Jinx had her arms raised above her head, balled to fists and holding something in the left one that neither cop could see from the distance with most of it being hidden by Jinx's fingers. But what they could see was the mad grin on the loose cannon's face. Fishbones was leaned against a chimney only a few feet away from her, Pow-Pow aside it, just in Jinx's reach, which made it a very dangerous situation for the two cops.

But Jinx didn't go for either of the weapons. Instead, her mad grin spread even further across her face.

"Let's play a game, hat lady, fat hands! It's a very fun game, you'll enjoy it!" exclaimed the madwoman with the electric-blue hair, finally opening her hands. And as Caitlyn spotted it, the thing that was strapped to the madwoman's hand, her blood ran cold.

In Jinx's left hand was a detonator, very simple in design, though it seemed to have two kinds of switches, one at the top, which Jinx's thumb was maybe an inch away from, and one at the side, which had been activated when Jinx let go of it.

"Ya wanna know what the game is called like?" shouted Jinx as madness entered her pink eyes, insanity sparkling in it. A sharp beeping noise behind her caught the attention of sheriff and enforcer, but it was only the enforcer who made a dash for the source of it.

"Damn it, Cait, there's loads of explosives underneath the couch!" bellowed Vi behind the sheriff, having fallen onto all fours to get a glimpse underneath the piece of furniture, from where the beeping came.

"It's called... 'Let's go back to the old ways'!"

Caitlyn turned on her heels as she saw the madwoman's finger twitch. She pushed herself off the ground, one foot sliding over the wood, while she swung her rifle over her shoulder in the same motion. Stumbling past Vi, she grabbed the enforcer, who had been in the middle of getting up, by the collar and pulled her along, making a dash for the door.

They didn't come to a stop in the hallway, sliding around the corner, mind set on getting out of there.

Jinx's smirk grew, though she couldn't see them anymore.

"Three... Two... One...!" she counted loudly, her eyes narrowing further with each number while her smirk increased, "Well, that was enough time, they should be out of the apartment... Tehehe..."

Her thumb slammed down on the detonator's switch.

And hell broke loose.

The two cops had managed to escape the hellhole just in time for the 'fireworks', as Jinx tended to call them, to start. Vi was just out of the door and following Caitlyn to the stairs when the apartment blew up behind her, a thick cloud of fire and smoke shooting out of the door they had broken down before, a shockwave sending Vi flying towards the stairs.

She hit the ground in front of them, caught herself in a roll, and without slowing down, rose to her full height and jumped down the first flight of stairs, landing just aside Caitlyn, who had been the faster of the two.

The two managed to exchange one glance, both panting – then, Caitlyn collapsed onto her rear, back against the wall, panting madly. Vi watched her in worry, but knowing that both of them were alright, relaxed somewhat.

"To hell with that sick woman!" exclaimed the sheriff, resting her head against the wall, "She's utterly crazy! One day, she's helping us, and the next, she's trying to kill us! Damn it, I sprained my ankle when I ran down the stairs..."

Vi didn't respond to that. She merely fell to the ground next to Caitlyn and leaned against the wall like her partner did, allowing the sheriff to rest her head on her shoulder. Spotting the thing that Caitlyn was holding, Vi reached for it and took it from her partner, then simply stared at it.

It was the DVD case.

"She's a maniac and a genius... I guess that's why we're still chasing her." sighed the enforcer as she closed her eyes herself, "And maybe why we owe her a little more than she herself thinks."

Meanwhile, Jinx was having the time of her life. She knew her favorite cops were alright, as she had given them enough time after Vi's panicked realization. That aside, the flames, the smell, the smoke! It was so glorious to her, a beauty she longed to see again and again and again.

And not only were explosions beautiful to her eye, but so were the two cops that always showed up after an explosion. Each explosion she caused was a small jackpot to her. She saw beauty, she had fun, the game would continue.

It couldn't be any other way now. To get caught and lose the game was out of question, it would destroy the routine. Killing them was also no option, and, deep down, she hoped that they knew that as well.

"Heh. Apartments." snorted the criminal as she finally lowered the detonator, feeling the excitement slowly die away as the flames finally perished, fading into nothing but black smoke that slowly rose into the sky, "I don't even like apartments. They're not my style. Once in a while though, they're okay, especially for something like this... "

She turned on the spot, a smirk gracing her lips anew. She skipped over the roof over to her weapons, picking up Pow-Pow after making sure that Zap was attached to her belt, then attached the mini-gun to her right side. With that done, she grabbed Fishbones and heaved it onto her left shoulder, at first intending to simply attach it back to it's place on her back, but then reached for it's jaws and opened them.

"Oh Jinx, you can be such a nice person! You really did a good deed for the two of them, helping them like that." she spoke to herself in a deeper voice, moving Fishbones like a puppet as she did so, before switching back to her normal one, "Oh Fishbones, stop it! I'm not a nice person at all, I was just bored and it annoyed me to see the two of them being distracted from chasing me!"

"You can be so modest, Jinx!" she spoke again in 'Fishbone's voice', moving the jaws of the rocket launcher, but once again switched back to her own voice, "And you so annoying. Shut up, Fishbones, I don't need you for the rest of the day. You've got the rest of the day off."

"And you have an off-day, I can tell that." she shot back in Fishbone's voice, and almost as if she had been truly shocked by what 'her rocket launcher said', froze up. Jinx shuddered, closed her eyes and let out a sigh, before pushing the rocket launcher over her shoulder, attaching it to it's place on her back.

"Sometimes, that's all it takes, Fishbones... Just one bad day." she sighed sadly, why though, she didn't know herself. With her weapons now all gathered up, she slowly stepped up to the edge of the roof, for once without any madness guiding her, and looked down at the street below, just in time to see how Vi and Caitlyn left the building across the street.

A genuine, not madness-induced smile found it's way onto her lips as she saw the way that Caitlyn had her arm laid around Vi's neck, leaning onto the enforcer for support as she hobbled along, calling backup to get the burning apartment under control.

Jinx flopped down on the edge of the roof, let her legs dangle over the edge and continued to watch her two favorite cops. No madness clouded her mind at that moment, no need to blow up things, no need for adrenaline, blood or death.

Just genuine happiness, a calm mind, no fog clouding it for once, though she felt a small pang of jealousy as she watched the affectionate actions of the two cops.

She wasn't sure how long she sat there, watching them, wasn't sure if the two knew she was there. Only as she finally heard the sirens of nearing police cars did Jinx let out a loud sigh and did rise from her spot, knowing that the fun was over.

Turning away, she gently touched her weapons anew, making sure they were still there, the only ones that would never truly leave her or hate her for anything she had ever done or would ever do, who did not hate her for who she was. And deep down, she truly hoped that Vi and Caitlyn were like that, maybe at least a little bit, who'd not truly hate her and would not leave her all alone.

Her first step was hesitant, the urge to stay right there surprisingly strong. But she knew she couldn't, knew it wasn't wise. Her second step wasn't any less hesitant. And after her third step, she stopped. Stopped, just long enough to glance over her shoulder and over the edge of the building, gaze resting on Vi.

The moment lasted long enough for her to wonder if she could follow Vi's steps one day and leave the darker side of the world, to wonder if things could be different, if she could be there with the two cops on the other side of the law instead, having fun and someone who truly cared for you, no longer on the run.

But, as if slapped by the hand of bitter reality, she found the madness slipping back into her mind at that moment, a twisted smile on her lips. Little did she know, though, that there lay sadness and longing in her eyes as she averted her gaze and turned to leave once more.

The answer to that was no. No, there was no chance, not anymore.

"Oh hat lady, oh fat hands..." she chuckled to herself, the twisted smile growing once more as she fell back into madness, each step further away from the cops serving to let her sanity slip away, to drown once more in the madness of her own mind, "These were fun days, weren't they? But it's time that things return to normal now! Once you two feel up to it, come chase me again, and we can play our usual game..."

By the time she jumped off the building, down onto a fire escape ladder, the madness was in full control again, the sadness gone from her eyes.

The sane side was once more gone.

* * *

It was hours later that the woman with the electric-blue hair woke with a start, nearly falling off the old couch that stood inside her hideout, which would've turned out to be pretty painful with all the metal strewn around the floor of her secret base.

She rose her head a little and glared over to the clock on the floor by one of the walls, having fallen off the hook it had been hanging on several days ago, but she had been too lazy to attach it back to the wall. Seeing as it was in the middle of the night, the loose cannon let out a groan, realizing that she had fallen asleep on the couch while working on a new plan.

Sitting up and stretching her tired limbs, the criminal sent a glance over to the corner of the room where her three weapons lay in their own little beds, then to the table aside her couch, which was littered with tools, blueprints, unfinished designs, sheets of paper filled with complicated calculations and smaller unfinished gadgets, inventions and other things she had researched, like a new and more efficient core for Zap, which would allow it to charge faster, though it wasn't working correctly yet.

What immediately changed her mood for the better, though, was the thing she spotted as she got up after deciding that it was time for her to go to bed, not wanting to fall asleep on that couch again. It appeared to be nothing but a simple old piece of paper, but it was actually a lot more than that.

In fact, the madwoman had, for a reason she wasn't sure about herself, telling herself that it was to prove herself that she wasn't crazy and imagining a thing from her past, spent the entire day after the nightly game in the office of her two favorite cops searching through the piles of junk that she possessed, looking for this one document.

Now that she had it, it was utterly amusing to her.

"My dear delusional cops..." she began, snickering as she stood up and picked up the sheet of paper, reading through it as she continued, "You should really learn to tell the difference between the truth and the lies, especially when it comes to me. The world isn't just black and white, and I haven't always been black."

The paper slipped out of her fingers, gently descending down onto the table again, but Jinx had already turned away long before it hit the table.

The sheet of paper, the official document from Zaun, congratulated a certain 'Miss Jinx' to her doctor's degree in psychology.

She didn't lie the other night. Though the card had been fake, meant as a joke, she really did have a doctor's degree in psychology, made it in Zaun months before she left for Piltover.

Still amused by the thought of the other night at the police station, and amused at the help she had given her favorite cops in realizing their true feelings for one another, the mad criminal stopped in front of one of the windows and stared out into the night, the night that seemed to fight against the lights of the city.

Somewhere out there were her two favorite cops, either spending time together off duty, or spending the night chasing criminals like her. Not that there were many dangerous ones, with her pretty much being the biggest threat to Piltover. She was pretty much the only one who always managed to outsmart and escape Piltover's finest.

Because of that, she wondered how life would be for the two cops, how they'd feel if she was gone. Would they enjoy the silence? The additional time they could spend with each other off duty? Or would they actually be bored by the sudden decrease in crimes, since the two of them, just like her, seemed to love the life on the edge? Would they miss her?

Jinx didn't plan on finding out. She didn't plan on going away, didn't plan on getting caught, didn't plan on dying. She didn't want a change.

The last change had been on a bad day. A simple bad day, which had cost her so much.

Which had cost the loose cannon her sanity.

The sudden noise of rain pelting against the window she stood in front of made her jump. She shuddered as she realized that she had been about to get lost in thoughts, but nonetheless managed a small, weak smile. Her dominant hand rose by it's own accord, gently touching the window, sending a delightful shudder through her body as her fingertips touched the cold glass.

A sense of melancholy hit her, and she felt the madness leave her mind, just for a short moment.

"All it takes is one bad day to reduce you to lunacy..." she whispered to herself, a rare moment of clarity of thought causing her to glance towards her three weapons, shuddering at the thought that she had given each of them an own personality, with Fishbones being the representation of her voice of reason, how little it had to say and how much she despised it, "Just one bad day..."

She pushed herself off the window, falling back into the room, back into the darkness of the messy room that was only illuminated by what little moonlight fell in through the windows whenever a small hole in the clouds allowed the moonlight to fall down onto the city, with the city's lights replacing that light in between.

Stepping over the mess on the floor, avoiding to step onto anything that she might need again and that might end up broken, the madwoman sighed to herself, the madness gone in favor of a trip down the memory lane, the cold, dark and windy, rainy night waking memories Jinx had long wanted to forget.

"I've had a bad day once..." she reminded herself, shortly stopping to gaze at her reflection in one of the windows, shuddering at the pitiful sight she was that night, and shuddering at the thought of the madness that was usually replacing that pitifulness, "And look where I am now. All alone, terrorizing a city to get attention from two women I feel close to... And we're not even on the same side of the law, let alone on the same side of the border between sane and insane."

Having the doctor's degree in psychology, she knew that she could as well be her own patient. She had more than one disorder, more than one psychological problem, more than one screw loose. Oh, how very aware she was of that.

At times, she even had a multiple personality disorder, sometimes changing back and forth between the mad Jinx, and the Jinx she had been once, before that one bad day. Sometimes, her head became clear, no fog of madness clouding her mind and sending her onto bombing sprees, no need for death, destruction and suicidal acts.

A bad day. A bad day had destroyed her life, had changed her forever. What happened that day, though, she couldn't remember. She didn't want to remember. At the end of the day, it was just another meaningless thought, just another pointless memory that wouldn't help her in surviving the next day.

Cause the next day could as well be the next, and maybe the very last, bad day she'd experience.

Vi, Piltover's enforcer, one half of Piltover's finest... She surely must've had a bad day once as well, Jinx felt it. Once you had a bad day, you felt when others like you were around.

She surely must've had a bad day once as well. Why else would she have chosen a life as a criminal otherwise? That wasn't a thing you decided on a whim. You didn't wake up one random morning and decide to leave everything behind in favor of a life on the run, always stealing, fighting, _killing_...

But Vi wasn't her. Vi was different. The enforcer hadn't stepped as deep into the darkness as she had, hadn't lost all of her sanity. Unlike her, Vi had been offered light. A light, a good day able to overshadow the one bad day she had, a way to redeem herself and escape from the gutters.

This one good day, it had a name. Caitlyn.

Jinx didn't blame Vi for not seeing the world as she did, as the one cruel, giant joke that it was, with a sinister punchline that tended to repeat itself ever so often. Jinx didn't even blame Vi for not becoming like her.

If anything, if she could, she would gladly escape as well, would follow the ex-criminal. If she'd been the one in Vi's place, she would've accepted Caitlyn's offer as well.

The wooden stairs up to the attic of her hideout, where her bed was located, groaned under the little weight of the scrawny woman as she stepped onto them. She shuddered at the noise, but stopped only for a second, then continued her way up the old stairs.

"If I still could..." she muttered to herself, the thought of saying it out loud somewhat calming her for a reason she didn't know, "If I still could, I'd gladly escape my lunacy. Maybe that is the reason I'm attracted to them... To Caitlyn and Vi."

She shuddered again at her own words, as she for once actually called the two women by their names. She had no reason to mock them now, not when they weren't present, and not when she actually had clarity of thought. If anything, now was the right moment to admit everything to herself, and to show the two her respect.

Reaching the top of the stairs, standing in the old attic now, the madwoman reached for the light switch and turned it on. The room was illuminated by a single old light bulb that hung from the ceiling, and Jinx laughed at the irony of it, as it reflected perfectly where her thoughts had traveled.

"Like a moth to the light..." she sighed, extending one hand to the source of the light, "Like a moth to the light, I follow the sanity that I do not have. I'm chasing after the two of them just as much as the two chase after me, but for different reasons. Do they even know that I long for a place at their side? How I wished I could be with them instead?"

She withdrew her hand and let out a short, sarcastic snort that was more of self-pity than actual amusement at the situation or her long crushed dreams. But that was the real reason she had helped the two of them, wasn't it? Because she wanted to give them that which she could not have, which she had been denied?

Yes, that was it. If she couldn't have that place, then she could at least allow them to have it. The warmth, the happiness, the sanity.

Madness took her over again. In the blink of an eye, it was back and took full control of her, sadness turning into anger. She grabbed one of her unfinished weapons from a nearby crate, which were scattered all over the attic, containing weapon parts and more of her unfinished creations.

Without even properly aiming, she pulled the trigger, the bullet released from the gun with a loud bang. Another bang followed as the light bulb burst apart, sparks falling from the ceiling along with shards, the bullet having destroyed it, just as she had intended.

Now thrown back into the darkness, in more than just one way, the madwoman lowered the weapon. A short huff escaped her lips as she waited for her eyes to adjust to the darkness, but a smirk followed immediately.

The gun fell to the ground, but it wasn't the only thing to hit it. Dripping noises followed the gun, liquid hitting the ground, and Jinx felt sick excitement as she glanced down at her hand.

She was bleeding, and that rather badly. The barrel of the unfinished, experimental gun had exploded, shards of metal having been sent flying everywhere, piercing her bare hand and arm up to the elbow.

And honestly, she didn't care. Pain didn't mean a thing to her, it only served to amuse her. That was how far from the world she was, how badly she had been changed by that one bad day.

But it also served to remind her of another thing, a thing she could only chuckle at as she kicked the now useless prototype away, sending it sliding across the wooden planks and into a gap between two crates. Knowing she had a first-aid-kit by her bed, she just ignored the bleeding for now and headed for her bed, letting the blood stain the ground with scarlet droplets all the way up to her bed, letting the excitement at the pain fuel her madness.

It reminded her of how useless her wishes were.

"Sadly, it's too late for me now. I can't turn back. I've stepped too deep into the lunacy, too far into the darkness." she reminded herself, flopping down on her bed, reaching for the first-aid-kit that she hid underneath it.

She smirked to herself, though, despite the irony of the situation and the dark mood of it. Smirked at the irony that, despite the fact that she wasn't part of the relationship with the two cops like she wished she was, she undeniably was, in a weird way, part of it. Just not like she wished she was and could be.

Finally, she had her arm wrapped in bandages, though they were already turning a dark red and she knew that she would have to eventually stitch the wounds. But she wanted to enjoy the pain for a while, wanted it to let it take her mind off the topic of the two cops.

It was over now. Now, things would return to normal, and she'd just let go of these last few days, keeping them only as a dear memory. She'd go back to building bombs, she'd blow things up, Piltover's finest would arrive and chase her, and she'd escape. And then, things would just repeat.

The never-ending game would continue, and she was looking forward to it.

She let the madness consume her anew, laughed as she let herself fall onto her bed, spreading her arms. Tomorrow, she'd start working on a new bomb, as now that Piltover's finest was no longer distracted by each other, their game would be fun again, maybe even more so than ever before.

Oh, and she wanted to watch more stuff with that clown-guy. He really had some great ideas, and she loved to try some of them herself.

She closed her eyes, drifted off to sleep, couldn't wait for the next day, where she'd just build another bomb to start their game anew, and where she'd just go back to that video rental store.

After all, she still had that fake version of fat hand's ID, and with it, she'd start the game all anew...

* * *

_And that, people, is what you get when SorrowfulReincarnation starts playing League of Legends and is exposed to the "Batman – The Killing Joke" comic at roughly the same time. Surely some of you noticed the hints and references to "The Killing Joke", right? After all, the title is nearly the same as well, though I've only chosen this title towards the end. So no, it wasn't based on "The Killing Joke" by Alan Moore, which only influenced this story towards the end._

_But that isn't really important right now, is it? There's something else I'd like to talk about, and that is just how much I enjoy to write Jinx. She's crazy, impulsive and very unpredictable, and that is exactly what I love to write. However, I don't think I can capture Jinx's true madness in words, which was why I was sitting at a few points, unhappy with the result. I had the feelings that some of these scenes were better in my head, but I do like the final result I've got._

_I didn't try to only show Jinx's madness in this, but the very conflicting sides of her, things we never see. For all I know, she might be truly hopelessly insane, but I've wondered if there ever was a moment when she hesitates and looks at things in a different light, when she thinks how she did before whatever turned her mad. Because there has to be a reason for her madness, she couldn't always have been like that._

_And that is where the ending came from. I wanted to show that she wasn't able to fight the madness, that she had no way back, that it was too late for her to escape._

_Jinx has already lost that fight._

_But yeah, let's leave it at that, before I start ranting._

_Anyways, this is the point where I want to voice my biggest thanks to Time96, my best friend (and my otouto~), who was willing to be my beta-reader for this (first time I had one, and no, I'm not looking for another one, and no, I'm not offering to be a beta-reader myself, I sadly don't have the time for that...) and, even if he isn't really that aware of it, helped me with a few scenes of this. He currently does not have an account himself and isn't writing anything, but that may change soon. All it takes is one bad day... And a little of my awesome powers of persuasion..._

_That being said, this shall be the end of this one-shot. I hope you enjoyed it, and I guess I'll eventually write another LoL one-shot, this one was pretty fun to write and come up with. _

_So until then, _

_So long~_


End file.
